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��WILLIAM J. COPELAND.

���WILLIAM J. COPELAND.

��tact with lawyers and observation of legal proceedings he gained a good knowlege of the law, and finally became the principal lawyer of the place, for, al- though not educated to the profession, his practical information and ready knowledge of human nature rendered his advice and assistance in legal controver- sies the most valuable that could be ob- tained in that region. This Moses Cope- land was a cousin of President John Ad- ams, and a grandson of John Alden up- en the maternal side.

William J. Copeland attended the com- mon schools in Shapleigh and Berwick, where his father was then preaching. In 1855 he attended the academy at South Berwick, and afterwards, for a time, the West Lebanon and Limerick Academies, earning the money to defray the neces- sary expenses by teaching in the winter and farm labor in the summer, teaching his first school, at Shapleigh, before he was sixteen years of age. Having a

��strong inclination toward the legal pro- fession, he entered the office of Hon. In- crease S. Kimball of Sanford, Me., at an early age, where he pursued the study of the law until he was admitted to the bar, which was before he was twenty-one years of age. He then located in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, where he en- tered upon the practice of his profession, remaining there until April, 1868, when he removed to Berwick, opposite Great Falls, where he has since resided, having established his office at the latter place. During the past ten years in which he has been in practice at Great Falls, it is safe to say Mr. Copeland has attained a degree of success in his profession sel- dom equalled and never surpassed by any practitioner in the country outside the great cities. This is attributable, it may fairly be presumed, to his indomita- ble energy, intense application and thor- rough devotion to his professional work. With powers of physical endurance far

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